HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ALL ISSUES SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a Colleague Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Sands, L. P. Articles by Katz, I. R. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Sands, L. P. Articles by Katz, I. R.

Monitoring Alzheimer's Patients for Acute Changes in Cognitive Functioning

Received March 10, 1998; revised September 17, 1998; accepted June 22, 1999. From The Division of Geriatrics, University of California, San Francisco. Address correspondence to Dr. Sands, Geriatrics Division, Dept. of Medicine and Center on Aging, UCSF, 3333 California St., Suite 380, San Francisco, CA 94118.

To develop and evaluate the use of cognitive monitoring for detecting episodes of acute, excess cognitive decline in individual Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, the authors conducted six repeated cognitive assessments over 11 weeks on 41 otherwise healthy people with mild-to-moderate AD. Patients demonstrated stable cognitive performance over 11 weeks on seven standard neuropsychological tests. Prediction intervals quantitatively defined the expected limits of cognitive decline. They indicated with 90% certainty that over the 11-week period, healthy mild-to-moderate AD patients should not decline more than 4 points on the Word List Recall test, 3 points on the Digit Span test, or 8 items on the Digit Symbol or Verbal Fluency tests. The cognitive stability of healthy AD patients indicates that it is possible to monitor them for acute, excess cognitive decline.

Key Words: Alzheimer's Disease • Monitoring • Assessment